Mamluk Cards

[variantventures]

I've been fascinated with these for years and finally got off my rear and started working on these. There's a company in Japan selling the Aurelia/Cartamundi reproductions for about $170 plus shipping and that's a little expensive for me. So I've been working on making my own. It's a fairly complex task and I've had to build up my skills and take things by steps. Thus far I've deconstructed many of the more complex patterns and built them. The step I just finished working on was the general layouts. I liked the layouts so much that I went ahead and put them on a deck for my own use.

I'm still looking for particularly good scans/photos as I try to match the color palette. Thanks

 

[variantventures]

I finally got these printed up and received my copy. I'm very happy with them.

 

[Abrac]

Those turned out really nice. Should look amazing after they're colored!

Out of curiosity, what's that animal head on the polo sticks? Is it a mythological creature of some sort?

 

[ravenest]

?

 

[variantventures]

It's a Persian style dragon. They borrowed from the Chinese.

 

[jean bosco]

Those are beautiful! Wow!

Just a little thing that catches my eye. In modern standard arabic the word naa'ib would be written with a hamza "[size=+2]ء[/size]" upon the "ya". Like [size=+3]نائب[/size]. Just to let you know. But I don't know the originals, so maybe they are written the same way.

Are you planning to make them available?

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

I love the rigorous clarity of your designs; they are, even in black and white, more appealing to me than the original cards. They want to be played with. If you ever market it, I will happily be a customer.

I think the color scheme should be equally rigorous and simple. I have good scans of the Carta Mundi reproduction, and the scheme, if I can reduce it to essentials, appears to be:

Polo Sticks - sky blue heads, gold and blue sticks.
Cups - gold cups, green or red bands under brim.
Swords - black
Coins - gold

The basic colors used throughout, are gold, blue, green, red and black. I think any consistent application of these colors will be pleasing for your cards.

 

[variantventures]

I'm not sure about the forum rules on selling. Let me find out what those are before I potentially step on my sword. I have been selling these to a few people and soliciting feedback. So far the feedback has been mostly positive. The buyers have understood that these are a very basic deck that is meant to be used, not collected, and have accepted the limitations that on-demand printing put on card production.

The most significant feedback I've had so far has been:
-The Arabic script. It's inconsistent and, combined with the printing, feels a little 'fuzzy' on three of the cards. I agree and I'm taking steps to correct this. Getting the Arabic script right (in every sense of the phrase) has been the most difficult part of the design process. It was a major factor (but not the only one) in leaving out the upper poetry boxes in this iteration of the deck.
-The dragon head. A couple of people felt the dragon head was weak in comparison to the stark contrasts of the rest of the deck. I'm experimenting with some different versions to see if I can come up with something better. I think adding color and further line detail to the deck will solve this problem in later versions of the deck.
-The lack of the upper poetry boxes has put some people off. I understand this but, as I mentioned above, there were considerations in favor of making the deck as simple as possible. I may add the poetry boxes back in to the color version I'm currently working on or I may wait until I go to the full detail deck. Alternately, I may leave them out altogether. I'm not married to the idea of being 100% correct. I have, in fact, pencil sketched some ideas for a deck based on the simpler style of the replacement cards.

 

[variantventures]

So, in talking with a card collector last night he brought up the Arabic script boxes. He feels the poetry boxes (which are at the top of the cards) are part of the original design but the 'court' boxes (which are at the bottom of the court cards) were added afterwards. He cited being able to see decoration from beneath the court boxes peeking through in a couple of places.

Given the history of the Topkapi deck it's entirely possible the cards were modifed after their original construction. I haven't had a chance to look at my scans of the cards (and I've got nothing special, all the images I have are available on the internet). Does anyone else see any evidence of this?

 

[variantventures]

So, in talking with a card collector last night he brought up the Arabic script boxes. He feels the poetry boxes (which are at the top of the cards) are part of the original design but the 'court' boxes (which are at the bottom of the court cards) were added afterwards. He cited being able to see decoration from beneath the court boxes peeking through in a couple of places.

Given the history of the Topkapi deck it's entirely possible the cards were modifed after their original construction. I haven't had a chance to look at my scans of the cards (and I've got nothing special, all the images I have are available on the internet). Does anyone else see any evidence of this?

Having had a chance to take a look, and knowing what to look for, I think ALL of the blue Arabic script boxes were added after the cards were created. Wow.